1. Field of the Invention
The present invention refers to a colour television set or a colour monitor and in particular a colour picture tube with a tension mask which is pretensioned in the vertical and in the horizontal direction.
2. Description of the Related Art
Colour television sets and (computer) monitors serve to convert electrical signals into colour pictures. Colour television sets and monitors have nowadays an interface for various video signal formats (such as e.g. composite colour picture signals, analog or digital component signals). These signals are converted into analog RGB signals for controlling a colour picture tube in a television set or in a monitor. The respective video signals fed to a television set or a monitor are converted in such way that each individual pixel of a reproduction screen can have associated therewith specific brightness and colour values. For reproducing a picture contained in a video signal, three electron beams are produced in a colour picture tube contained in a colour television set or a monitor. Each of these electron beams corresponds to one of the three primary colours of the additive colour mixture: red, green, blue. Depending on the reproduction position, the pixel information, i.e. the brightness and colour information, of the video signal is associated with a respective pixel on a luminescent screen of the colour picture tube.
By means of pixelwise superposition of three colour separation pictures, an additive colour mixture is obtained in the case of a colour picture tube. The luminescent screen of a colour picture tube contains approx. 400,000 colour triads, i.e. phosphor dots which are arranged in groups of three, each group comprising a red-light, a green-light and a blue-light phosphor dot. The diameter of such a phosphor dot is approx. 0.3 mm.
When a video signal is being reproduced, each of these dots is accessed by one of the three electron beams and caused to emit light. The electron beams are generated by an electron beam generation system in the neck of a colour picture tube. In FIG. 4, such a colour picture tube is shown in a cross-sectional view. A colour picture tube essentially consists of a glass element 15. On the inner side of the front screen 16 of the colour picture tube, a phosphor layer 17 comprising the phosphor dots is arranged. The electron beams for accessing the phosphor dots are produced by an electron gun 18 in the neck of the colour picture tube. The electric signals for controlling the electron gun are supplied to said electron gun from outside via contact pins 20. By means of a deflection unit which is not shown and which is arranged on the outer side of the colour picture tube, the electron beams are deflected in such a way that all the pixels of the luminescent screen are accessed successively. At a distance of approx. 15 mm from the luminescent screen 17, a shadow mask with a mask frame 19 is provided in the interior of the colour picture tube. In said shadow mask a separate aperture is associated with each colour triad on the luminescent screen. These apertures or holes have a diameter of approx. 0.25 mm and are etched into the shadow mask/hole mask at regular intervals. The three electron beams meet in the respective aperture accessed by the joint beam deflection and fall on the phosphor dots of the luminescent screen 17 located behind said aperture. In the course of this process, a major part of the electrons generated by the electron beam generation system land on the shadow mask. This causes warming and a corresponding thermal expansion of the shadow mask. As a result, the apertures in the shadow mask will change their position relative to the phosphor dots associated therewith. The colour purity of the pixels reproduced deteriorates due to this change of position. Such a deterioration becomes apparent especially with regard to the apertures located at the periphery of the mask.
Shadow masks are implemented not only in the form of aperture masks, but they are also used in the form of strip masks. In the case of these strip masks, the luminescent screen 17 of a colour picture tube is not provided with individual phosphor dots but with phosphor strips extending in the direction of the strips of the shadow mask. Accordingly, the shadow mask is provided with strip-shaped apertures for the individual electron beams, the respective strip-shaped apertures being associated with the strips on the luminescent screen. Such a strip mask often consists of xe2x80x9cwiresxe2x80x9d that extend in parallel.
As can be seen in FIG. 4, the shadow mask is held by a mask frame 19 so as to impart mechanical stability to the mask and so as to make it easily handleable. Also the mask frame of modern colour picture tubes consists of a thin metal sheet.
In view of the small thermal expansion, shadow masks are nowadays also produced from iron-nickel alloys having a very small coefficient of thermal expansion. Since such iron-nickel alloys are many times more expensive than iron, mask frames are, however, produced from iron. The connection of shadow masks and mask frames consisting of materials with different coefficients of thermal expansion is problematic. When such mask/frame combinations become warm, deformations of the shadow mask may occur. This has the effect that the positions of the holes in the shadow mask change relative to the positions of the associated phosphor dots or phosphor strips.
The most widely used shadow masks are shaped, self-supporting shadow masks. Such a shadow mask is shown in FIG. 1. The shadow mask arranged behind the luminescent screen 1 comprises hole- or strip-shaped apertures 3 corresponding to the arrangement of the luminescent colours on the luminescent screen. The mask is secured to a frame 2. The contour of such a mask can be varied in the vertical as well as in the horizontal direction. The holding frame for the mask need not absorb any major forces in this case. The material of the frame can therefore be chosen substantially from the economical point of view.
Another type of colour picture tubes is pretensioned in the vertical direction. The major use of such shadow masks, so-called tension masks, is essentially in Trinitron tubes. These shadow masks are fixedly connected to the mask frame on the upper and lower boundaries thereof. The pretension of the shadow mask is necessary so as to guarantee that the distance between the luminescent screen and the shadow mask remains constant in the direction of the longitudinal axis 21 of the colour picture tube. Due to the pretension, the vertically oriented xe2x80x9cwiresxe2x80x9d are held under tension. This imparts mechanical strength to the strip mask. The pretension necessitates high tension forces which may assume values of several kN. Hence, the mask frame must be very solidly built. Upon selecting the material, it is especially necessary to take into account the high process temperatures used in the production process of a colour picture tube. Such masks have, however, the advantage that they are highly transparent and that the mask contour has a high thermal stability. They are, however, disadvantageous insofar as they always have only a cylindrical curvature of the mask. In addition, the tight mask wires tend to react to mechanical vibrations with strong oscillations.
Such a tension mask with tension in the vertical direction is shown in FIG. 2. Also this mask is provided with a luminescent screen 1 and a mask frame 2. The wires 5 of the mask are pretensioned in the vertical direction. This pretension is indicated by the arrows 7, 8 in FIG. 2. In order to avoid oscillations of the wires and in order to keep the distances between the wires constant, so-called damping wires 6 are placed on top of the tight mask wires 5 such that they extend transversely thereto. These damping wires are provided for suppressing mechanical oscillations of the mask wires 5 and for keeping the distances between the individual wires constant. A disadvantage of these damping wires 6 is that they are imaged on the screen of the colour picture tube where they can be seen as permanently existing horizontal dark lines in the picture.
In the case of such vertically pretensioned masks, the mechanical stability can also be improved by arranging small crosspieces between the wires. These crosspieces prevent the individual mask wire from oscillating separately. By a uniform arrangement of such crosspieces, the distances between the wires are kept constant and a homogeneous, non-disturbing structure, which is also known from shaped shadow masks, is created on the screen.
The use of such crosspieces is, however, disadvantageous with regard to the mask wires insofar as the wires are coupled in the horizontal direction, and this has the effect that, in the case of thermal heating, the shadow mask will also expand in the horizontal direction. This kind of expansion will, in turn, cause a displacement of the points where the electron beams land on the luminescent screen. This displacement causes a deterioration of the image reproduction quality. To keep this effect small, Invar or other iron-nickel alloys having a small coefficient of thermal expansion are preferably used as a material for the shadow mask and the mask frame. This, however, will markedly increase the production costs of such a colour picture tube.
In order to avoid a deterioration of the image quality caused by a thermal expansion in the horizontal direction, one possibility isxe2x80x94as describedxe2x80x94the use of special alloys as a mask material. Alternatively, it is, however, also possible to additionally apply a pretension to the mask in the horizontal direction. This will prevent the mask from curving in the longitudinal direction of the colour picture tube when the mask warms. FIG. 3 shows such a mask with a mask frame 2. The arrows 7-10 indicate that the mask is pretensioned both in the vertical and in the horizontal direction. In this way, it is also possible to compensate the consequences of a thermal expansion of the crosspieces between the holes 3 in the horizontal direction.
For producing such a horizontal pretension, the shadow mask is, in the most simple case, additionally also fixed to the mask frame on the sides. Alternatively, it is, however, also possible to produce a horizontal pretension without connecting the shadow mask to the lateral elements of the mask frame. For this purpose, the shadow mask is horizontally extended by a narrow, non-perforated portion. By stretching the shadow mask in the vertical direction, these non-perforated portions are extended in the direction of stretching. Simultaneously, a constriction occurs in the middle of these portions, i.e. these portions become narrower due to stretching, the narrowest point being in the middle. This has the effect that the perforated inner area of the shadow mask, which is located between the two non-perforated boundary portions, is drawn outwards. Hence, an additional horizontal pretension is produced simultaneously with the vertical pretension. This method is generally referred to as semi-stretch-tension technique, in short SST technique.
The principle underlying this technique is explained on the basis of FIG. 5. For this purpose, only part of the whole shadow mask is shown, the part of the shadow mask represented in FIG. 5 being only one half of said mask with one of the non-perforated, additional lateral areas. The shadow mask 25 has a perforated portion 26 and additional portions 27 having no holes provided therein. For producing the pretension in the vertical direction, the mask is vertically stretched before it is fixed to the mask frame. This has the effect that the shadow mask 25 will have applied thereto a permanent pretension in the vertical direction when it has been fixed to the mask frame. This pretension prevents the mask from curving in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the colour picture tube during operation due to thermal expansions in the vertical direction. In FIG. 5 it is shown how the shape of the non-perforated boundary portion 27 of the shadow mask changes during such stretching. The shape of the shadow mask prior to stretching is shown by the solid lines, the shape after stretching is represented by the broken line 30. During the stretching, the width of the boundary portion 27 is reduced, the maximum reduction of width being caused in the middle between the upper and the lower edge. The maximum reduction of width of the boundary portion 27 occurring in the course of this process is referred to as reduction of area/constriction C. Due to the fact that the boundary line 28 between the perforated portion and the non-perforated portion 27 is displaced by the reduction of area in the direction of the outer boundary 29 of the shadow mask 25, also the inner area 26 of the mask is drawn outwards. This has the effect that the perforated portion 26 is stretched in the horizontal direction, whereby a pretension is simultaneously produced in said horizontal direction.
In other words, stretching of the mask in the vertical direction will additionally cause an outwardly directed tension force in the horizontal direction. The magnitude of this tension force depends on the degree of the constriction C. The broader the portion 27 prior to vertical stretching, the larger the constriction C and therefore the horizontal tension force that can be produced. The width of the additional, non-perforated portions 27 can, however, be increased only to a very limited extent, without increasing the screen area in the horizontal direction by disturbing areas which cannot be used as a reproduction surface. Accordingly, the horizontal tension forces that can be produced are only very small.
By means of the horizontal tension forces that can nowadays be produced in this way, only the thermal expansions of mask materials having a particularly low coefficient of thermal expansion can be compensated for. Since these mask materials, such as Invar, are particularly expensive, it is desirable to replace such expensive mask materials by less expensive ones.
It is the object of the present invention to further develop known colour television sets and colour monitors and, in particular, colour picture tubes in such a way that the shadow masks of the colour picture tubes can also be produced from a less expensive mask material.
This object is achieved by the features of claim 1 for a colour picture tube, by the features of claim 8 for a colour television set and by the features of claim 9 for a colour monitor.
According to the present invention, an expensive mask material having a low coefficient of thermal expansion can be replaced by a less expensive mask material, such as iron, when the tension forces which can be produced in the horizontal direction are markedly higher than the hitherto produced forces, since this will offer the possibility of compensating also the much larger thermal expansions of the less expensive materials during operation. For this purpose, the shadow-mask sides which are not connected to the mask frame are implemented such that they have a curved shape, the curved outer boundary having a higher length than the inner area of the shadow mask. For producing an outwardly directed tension force which acts on the inner area of the shadow mask, the lateral boundaries must have an inwardly curved shape. When the mask is vertically stretched, the curved shape will be stretched as well, i.e. its curvature will decrease. This has the effect that all the points on the outer, reinforced boundary will move outwards and, consequently, also the inner area of the mask will move outwards in a corresponding manner. Also in the stretched condition of the shadow mask, the lateral outer boundaries maintain a curved shape, the curvature being, however, much smaller. The magnitude of the constriction in the middle of the shadow mask between the upper and the lower edge results from the curved shape (curvature) of the reinforced boundary before and after the stretching of the shadow mask. After the stretching, the outer, reinforced boundary of the shadow mask may assume an almost straight shape. In this way, a constriction can be achieved which will increase in proportion to the magnitude of the differences existing between the curved shapes before and after the vertical stretching of the shadow mask. Since the constriction that can be achieved in this way exceed those that can be produced in the case of conventional shadow masks, also the horizontal tension forces which can be produced in this way will be markedly stronger.
The shadow-mask expansion which can be compensated by means of these higher tension forces exceeds the horizontal expansion of the shadow mask which could normally be compensated up to now. This has the special advantage that the materials used for the shadow mask can also be materials which do not have a particularly low coefficient of thermal expansion, since, by means of the particularly high horizontal pretension according to the present invention, it is still possible to prevent the shadow mask from curving in the longitudinal direction of the picture tube. Hence, also less expensive materials, such as iron, can be used as a mask material without any deterioration of image quality in comparison with conventional masks. The production costs of colour picture tubes and consequently also of monitors and television sets can therefore be reduced whereas the quality will remain the same.
According to an advantageous embodiment, the shadow mask has a larger material cross-section at the curved sides thereof than in the inner area of the mask so as to reinforce said curved sides. In this way, the strength of the mask can be increased in a particularly simple manner.
When a shadow mask is being produced, the mask is normally subjected to an etching process for producing the apertures. During this etching process, the material cross-section of the whole mask is reduced. An increased material cross-section at the curved boundary areas to be reinforced can be produced in a particularly simple manner by leaving these boundary areas largely unetched during this process. This as the effect that, after the etching process, these portions will have a larger material cross-section than the perforated mask area.
An increase of the strength of the curved boundary areas can also be achieved by providing the shadow mask with a modified composition of materials in these areas. By modifying the composition of materials in the boundary areas, a higher strength can be achieved in said boundary areas. The increase in the cross-section of the mask can, in this way, be smaller or can be dispensed with completely in boundary areas.
The higher strength and the larger material cross-section, respectively, can also be achieved by providing an additional element in the boundary areas to be reinforced. This course of action is advantageous insofar as the masks can first be produced in the usual way and can then be combined with additional, separately produced elements in a final step. In this way, the present invention can easily be integrated into the usual sequence of production steps of a colour picture tube. When this additional element is produced from a material with increased strength, the material cross-section of this additional element can be particularly small.
It will be particularly advantageous when the shadow mask can be produced from iron.